Selecting Embryos For Higher IQ

People of means will soon no longer dream of natural conception, but instead opt for this embryo selection by polygenic scoring.

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One service now edits out low-IQ embryos, which they politely term intellectually disabled, is half step away from offering to find the highest IQ in the batch.

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I wonder if it comes with a warranty? Probably implied anyway...

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred
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I's like to see the QA procedure which assures those results meet the specification.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Whether that works or not, we are just at the beginning of really understanding and manipulating our biology. Dramatic things are coming, good and not so good.

I edited the IQs of my kids the old-fashioned way, by marrying smart women.

IQ isn't everything.

--
John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

Yes, we need to know about their return policy. and also, does it include free shipping?

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 Thanks, 
    - Win
Reply to
Winfield Hill

ead opt for this embryo selection by polygenic scoring.

ectually disabled, is half step away from offering to find the highest IQ i n the batch.

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The problem is that the thousand-odd single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that we know about each affect about 0.1% of the IQ score, and the lot - ta ken to together - explain about 10% of the variance in IQ (not that high IQ is what you want to aim for, since it is more designed easy to be measure than it is designed to be useful).

Robert Plomin thinks that there about about another 10,000 SNPs that each h ave closer to a 0.01% effect on IQ, and that even bigger (tens of millions of samples) surveys will find them.

You are going to have to sort through a lot of candidate embryos to find on e that is more than marginally better than average.

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Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
bill.sloman

It's also not some kind of fixed lifetime parameter like eye color. Several Army studies show that the average IQ of the US infantryman was higher than that of World War 1 soldiers by a statistically significant amount and the only thing that change correlated well with was the average WW2 infantryman was better educated, had more years of secondary schooling, than the WW1 soldier.

If you're going to select for something select for a resilient cardiovascular system, maybe. IQ is one of the most externally-"editable" parameters there is why pay big bucks for what probably amounts to much less influence than environment and education have.

Selecting for mutations known to cause disorders that have known severe mental disability consequences probably makes sense from a robotic, eugenics-kind of view I guess but trying to select for "high IQ" (whatever that means) I suspect will provide little real-life value.

They're not all going to be Einsteins I guarantee it probably more like that very bright but poorly-adjusted awkward goth kid who is afraid of humans, loves the Smiths and thinks only cats and computers understand him.

Reply to
bitrex

"My supremely wealthy, narcissistic control-freak parents who think of me as their property or a glorified pet edited my DNA at birth because they wanted me to be some kind of genius to compensate for their own glaring inadequacies..."

They might be smart enough to understand where they came from - and probably won't be too pleased about it. Law of unintended consequences.

Reply to
bitrex

nstead opt for this embryo selection by polygenic scoring.

ellectually disabled, is half step away from offering to find the highest I Q in the batch.

Its largely heritable, and gets more heritable as you get older.

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That is the Flynn effect

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Nobody seems to have a good idea where it comes from. It may be that modern society selects for intelligence, and smarter people are more likely to ge t married and have kids - there's clearly fairly vigorous evolutionary sele ction going on in the relevant bits of the genome (granting that we aren't too sure what those bits are actually doing for intelligence/social success or whatever).

Robert Plomin begs to differ. A lot of what looked like environmental effec ts turned out to be kids shaping their environment to suit their talents.

There are thousands of genes in play, none of which have much of an effect

- it's down at the 0.1% level and below. Plomin thinks that the relevant si ngle nucleotide polymorphism identified so far each have an effect of the o rder of o.1% or less, and the ones that remain to be identified will have l ess (so you need large samples of people - in the millions - to be able to pull them out).

m.

There are a large number of genes in play, working in a wide variety of way s.

There may not be as many different ways of being clever as there are clever people, but clever people can certainly be clever in very different ways.

Any single stereotypes is just silly.

--
Bill Sloman, Sydney
Reply to
bill.sloman

Given that we already inflict life on our children without their consent, I can't see the objection to making those children as able as possible.

One day, society may come to regard just letting things happen naturally as being on a par with child abuse.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

How many women did you marry before finding the smart one?

Reply to
John S

instead opt for this embryo selection by polygenic scoring.

ntellectually disabled, is half step away from offering to find the highest IQ in the batch.

y

rn society selects for intelligence, and smarter people are more likely to get married and have kids - there's clearly fairly vigorous evolutionary se lection going on in the relevant bits of the genome (granting that we aren' t too sure what those bits are actually doing for intelligence/social succe ss or whatever).

ects turned out to be kids shaping their environment to suit their talents.

t - it's down at the 0.1% level and below. Plomin thinks that the relevant single nucleotide polymorphism identified so far each have an effect of the order of o.1% or less, and the ones that remain to be identified will have less (so you need large samples of people - in the millions - to be able t o pull them out).

him.

ays.

er people, but clever people can certainly be clever in very different ways .

That's not what this data says:

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I don't know much about Equatorial Guinea, except I don't want to go near t he place.

Then this type of result was used to explain the stark contrast between Hai ti and Dominican Republic in just about every aspect of their so-called soc ieties, considering all other things remain equal among the usual excuses f or this kind of disparity.

Cameroon is another living hell on Earth:

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

Ever been to the so-called society of West Virginia?

Reply to
bitrex

stead opt for this embryo selection by polygenic scoring.

llectually disabled, is half step away from offering to find the highest IQ in the batch.

Of course, and the objections originate with the powers that be who want as many stupid people as possible. I mean where would they be without gullibl e mentally deficient types when it comes to military, civil service, self-i nflicted workplace slavery, work obsessed avaricious peasants, and all the other pointless forms of existence in modern society.

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

What the heck do you have against WV?

Rick C.

Reply to
gnuarm.deletethisbit

Nothing, but I'd probaly prefer to live in the so-called society of the Dominican Republic.

Point is the statements bloggs making make about as much sense as the average-IQ-by-state explaining the "stark contrast" between Wheeling, West Virginia and Alexandria, Virginia

Reply to
bitrex

Only two, and both were smart. My older daughter is a PhD biologist and geneticist, and Bratinella has an MBA and runs my company. Formidable women.

Girls are great.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

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Reply to
John Larkin

Creating another consciousness, and nurturing it to adulthood, in a civilized part of the world, is hardly abuse. None of my kids blame me for their being.

Kids don't just happen naturally in advanced countries. We already have pretty good control over the process.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

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Reply to
John Larkin

The Puritan mentality is that life and mortality is a curse and affliction which is inflicted upon unblemished immortal souls, and must be atoned for through various acts of self-denial and self-punishment.

Maybe so. there's little virtue in unrestrained excess either. there's probably a middle ground, here.

Reply to
bitrex

and the only thing more unpleasant than sitting in church is sitting in a university atheist discussion/support group. Yeesh.

Reply to
bitrex

mandag den 18. februar 2019 kl. 17.32.20 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:

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Reply to
Lasse Langwadt Christensen

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